The Arabic news network Al-Jazeera has been thrust into the center of the story as Qatar came under virtual siege by its Gulf neighbors, pressuring it to shut down the TV channel that has infuriated them with its coverage for 20 years.

A Northwestern professor sued the State Department, demanding that it respond to her requests for documents about its purported aim of influencing Al-Jazeera’s coverage of the U.S. and its wars in the Middle East via American university satellite campuses.

A bureau chief at Al Jazeera and an American freelancer claim in a federal complaint that they are being targeted for death because a flawed algorithm put their names on the U.S. government’s kill list.